And welcome again to the next installment of our bi-monthly virtual community meeting update.

And just want to confirm, Melissa, we are recording because I want to make sure that recording is available for later view.

Yep.

Yep.

That's correct.

Great.

Thank you.

And so right, that's one of the things we stress is that we do like to run these things on a regular cadence so that people can stay informed and aware of what's going on.

And of course, we know that not everybody can make it at the set meeting time.

So we always want to make sure the materials are available whenever people are able to.

Let's uh jump over to the next slide.

So, what is this event?

As I mentioned, it's the next installment of our bi-monthly uh meeting series.

Uh, we started running these, I think in April of 2025.

Uh, and the idea was that we wanted to make sure that everyone was uh aware and involved and had access to information for what was coming up, uh, either at uh upcoming public hearings, whether it was for planning commission or city council, or that they could stay aware of uh aware and informed of ongoing planning activities, uh especially long-range planning activities.

And so the idea was to hold these meetings on uh on an every other month basis.

We didn't want to overload people with meetings, but we wanted them to be frequent enough uh that could that people could stay aware and informed.

Uh and uh you'll see the uh the web link to our webpage there, Alexander VA.gov slash planning.

Uh all of the materials that uh, in addition to other things you can find there, all the materials from this meeting series are available there.

The the slides are there, the videos are there, the QA is there, uh, and not just for the most recent meeting, but all of them going back to April of last year, and we'll keep doing that going forward.

As I mentioned, this is a meeting series that we run in this format because we want it to be accessible if people are at home on their computer, if they're on their mobile phone, uh, or they can't catch it uh live, they can always catch it after because the important thing is how do we get the information out.

Let's go to the next slide.

Uh and as I mentioned, this is going to cover a lot of different topics.

We can see the agenda uh on the left side of the screen there.

Uh, of course, we always want people to feel like this is their meeting, starting with a welcoming message.

Uh, and then we'll run through uh all the various things uh that that come across uh uh through planning and zoning.

Uh long range planning.

Uh tonight we're going to talk about uh the latest on Nuke Street land use plan.

We've also started a spotlight series.

Uh when we do see when development applications come in, it's common for uh people to have similar concerns from project to project.

They ask about things uh like landscaping, they ask about stormwater, they ask about transportation.

And so what we've started doing, and you can go back and see these in prior videos, and we'll see if we can't pull these out as their own web links.

Uh, but we've started doing is uh five to 10 minute segments on these top button issues, these important issues that people ask about time and again on different applications.

Tonight we're going to be talking about transportation engineering uh and the uh the guides and rigor that go into reviewing each application.

Uh then we'll be talking about upcoming uh uh applications, development and activity, and then also uh zoning ordinance updates, uh proposed zoning ordinance updates that are in the works, uh, but of course haven't gone to concept hearing yet, so they're not a perfect, but they are things that are uh under review and uh in the development.

And then at the end of the meeting, uh as always, there's time for QA.

Uh, we're gonna try to get to all the questions tonight.

Uh, we've been successful doing that so far.

If that turns out that we can't get to all of them tonight, we'll of course post answers to it to any questions we didn't get to on the website.

Uh as you go, if you want to uh punch in your QA, we're gonna save all the questions for the end.

Uh, but certainly when a question pops into your uh uh comes to mind, go ahead and type it in.

There should be a QA box meeting to hover your mouse over the lower center of the screen.

Uh, type it into the QA box, and we'll read them out and answer them at the end of the meeting.

Uh let's go to the next slide.

And this is a chart that we introduce in all these meetings.

Uh, and it it shall it helps show the connection of all the different kinds of things we're talking about tonight.

So uh it is uh it begins with uh the community engagement process uh on the far left, the small area planning SAP process.

Uh that's where staff and unity council, boards and commissions come together to develop a vision for what they want the community to be in the future.

Uh and that has explicit things like goals and recommendations, and it pulls together all these different elements of city planning and community development.

Uh that serves as uh the guiding framework uh for development going.

Uh once that framework is in place, the zoning regulations uh can be made, uh can be put in place that support and encourage and attract that kind of development and investment.

Zoning regulations are specific rules for land use, right?

Things like the apartment buildings versus office versus retail.

That's the land use category, the open space.

What are the requirements for open space on each site?

How should the streets be laid out?

What are the design requirements for individual buildings and sites?

How would development be phased over?

Once those rules are in place, applicants, developers can apply for permission to construct things.

They most commonly people come in with the BSVP, development special use permit application.

That lays out the specifics of the development proposal.

It should be aligned to the small area plan vision and it should adhere to the zoning rules that are in place.

Only if it's approved, can it proceed to the permit stage where again goes through technical and regular view by staff for uh all those important life safety codes like building for fire codes?

And only if all those revenues are passed, can the project then go to construction?

So I think this graphic, we like to use it a lot because there are a lot of different kinds of things we want to talk about, and this helps show out they're all connected one.

Go to the next slide.

All right, so I'm going to turn it over to our first speaker of the night.

Carrie, take it away.

All right, thank you very much, Paul.

I'm Carrie Beach, vision chief for neighborhood planning and community development.

Give a brief um status update on the Duke Street land use plan.

Uh next slide.

This is a process we a planning process we started early last year, um, working with the community to um begin to understand what the issues and ideas were for the Duke Street corridor.

We've been um working closely um with the community over the past year or so to begin to develop um iterative elements of the plan.

So we started with developing um sort of the guiding plan principles with the community, um, moved on to developing some general themes and a plan framework.

Um, and now we're uh summer fall 2026.

We have just today released some um the draft recommendations for the plan.

And so I'll tell you a little bit about that.

All of this leading towards an anticipated uh late 2026 adoption of the plan.

Next slide.

Uh through this process, we have done a lot of community engagement.

So that means we have reached out to all of the various stakeholder groups in the area, ranging from businesses to civic associations to faith groups to nonprofits to um folks that we run into when we're holding a pop-up at the grocery store or at a community event.

And we've been trying to do this through a whole variety of means, uh, things that make it easy for people to um learn about the process and share their ideas.

And so that's been through pop-ups through more formal community meetings, both online and in person.

Um, and the idea behind all this is really to um to generate community feedback and make sure that we come up with a plan that is um consistent with the themes that we're hearing from the community, and our our goal is to integrate as much of that, those uh community ideas and feedback as possible, and when we're not able to to help um folks understand um uh why not?

Um, next slide.

As I mentioned, through throughout this process, we've um uh the feedback that we've um gotten from the community has really fallen into uh um these uh community themes.

Um, and they range from uh themes around traffic and mobility and and how people get around the corridor.

So thinking about safety and accessibility, how can how can people on foot or on a bike um feel safer uh crossing the street or getting to their nearby school or their nearby park?

Um, but also addressing addressing um how cars move around the corridor.

So addressing congestion and looking at opportunities to really um make it safer and easier for for everyone to get around.

Um this planning effort builds on the vision of the uh Duke Street transit corridor, which was approved by city council um uh some time back, and uh our colleagues in transportation and environmental services are busy uh developing the design and implementation of that transit corridor.

So much of the plan themes that were and the recommendations that will be coming out of this plan are related to how can we take advantage of and support the transit that is coming.

And so that ties into those mobility themes a lot.

We also heard a lot from folks that they they love their neighborhood retail.

There are a lot of small businesses as well as as well as some anchored grocery stores in the area, and folks want to keep that and enhance it where possible.

Lots of residents have talked about housing affordability and how they're concerned about wanting to stay in the neighborhood and worried about development displacing existing residents.

And so that's been a key focus of how we make recommendations with in terms of development that will be attracted to the corridor in the future.

Next slide.

And so that comes to um today.

The one that is on the screen right now is the land use map.

But it there's a mobility framework map, a pedestrian and bike framework map, an open space map.

And so all of the kind of topic elements of the plan have a set of plan recommendations that go along with those.

And what we're asking for is of the community is you know, here's the rubber is meeting the road, and and have we captured your comments and ideas, have we captured your concerns and asking for your um your feedback on that?

And we're doing that through a few different ways.

What you see on your screen right here is our online engagement hub, which is where folks can really interact with the material a little more than they might otherwise.

Um so it allows folks to zoom in or zoom out on the various maps.

It allows people to leave comments on the map, and in general, um ask questions or comment on the recommendations.

Next slide.

So just a reminder: there are lots of ways to engage in this.

We're gonna the recommendations will be up for 30 days for people to comment on.

They are on our project web page, which is AlexandriaVA.gov slash Duke Street plan.

They're on the online engagement page I mentioned.

Um we're also happy to get an email from you if that's the easiest way, or you can come to our meeting uh virtually on August 5th at 6:30, and that's where we'll be really kind of going through these recommendations and explaining them in a little more detail and asking um giving people an opportunity to ask questions about things that that aren't clear to them so that we can really make sure folks can provide their recommendations.

And lastly, we'd love to come as we've been saying all through this process, we've been to lots of different um organizations' meetings.

We're happy to continue doing that, so feel free to um invite us to your meeting.

That covers it.

Thanks, Paul.

Oh, no, it doesn't, just kidding.

This is just a quick reminder of where we are in the process.

Um coming up next month again, the uh community meeting um on August 5th, and then we'll be uh internally be working on revisions to those recommendations based on the feedback we hear and um bringing back to you probably late in September a full draft plan, and that will again be out for a 30-day release for public comment, all leading us towards that um anticipated December public hearing date.

Now I am done.

All right, thank you, Carrie.

Good update and a good project.

The um so this is as I mentioned, this is part of our spotlight series.

Uh, and this is really intended to inform people about uh the rigorous review for multiple duplicit disciplines, the spotlight series is the rigorous review for multiple disciplines that goes into each and every application.

Uh and so tonight uh we're lucky to have Ryan here to walk us through uh uh when we look at something for transportation engineering, what are the aspects we're looking at uh and how do we do that on different applications, and I'll turn it over to Ryan.

All right.

Thank you, Paul.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Ryan Knight.

I'm the transportation engineering division chief.

And today I will talk about our role in the development review process and how it pertains to transportation analysis.

Next slide.

So again, just a quick agenda.

I'll talk about, I'll introduce kind of our mission and our role, where we kind of stand in the development review process.

Then I'll go into greater detail as to the transportation planning administrative guidelines, basically the guidelines that we use to do traffic studies within the city of Alexandria.

So that would entail when a traffic study is required, when what the review process looks like, and also what's entailed with the traffic study.

And then also a possible mitigations that we look into.

Next slide.

So again, uh the transportation engineering mission is to provide improved mobility in Alexandria and the region through sound engineering, design, technology, technology implementation, and regional cooperation.

So within our group, we not only look at uh you know traffic analysis as it pertains to development review, but then also traffic analysis as pertains to corridor improvement projects, um, capital projects.

Uh we also look at uh conceptual design.

So we do a little in-house conceptual designs for uh lane reconfiguration projects.

Um we look at traffic calming measures within residential areas, um, and then also we um are in the role of smart mobility program, which is uh the use of technology to improve the way that people move about the city.

Next slide.

All right, so when it uh comes to development review, our the role that we kind of lead is kind of looking into the vehicle access within the development.

So, what does what does the driveway entrance look like?

Uh, how is it designed?

Is it designed adequately for the uh anticipated vehicle that uh is going to be used with within the building?

If there is a garage, what does that design look like?

Is um can uh vehicles move in and out the parking spaces adequate adequately?

Um, and then also uh we look at the loading area operations.

So uh look at uh if there's any moving moving uh trucks or or trash trucks or things of that nature that would be using the development, um, you using the building, what is their um maneuverability look like?

Are they backing in, are they backing out, how how are they getting into the building, uh things of that nature?

So we look at that.

Uh we also look at roadway design, so kind of service level roadway design.

So if there are new roads that come with the uh development, then is it designed to industry standards or the striping plan um at industry standards?

Uh are there appropriate signs or adequate signs uh that's there?

Um if it if it impacts uh you know our right of way, what does that look like?

Um and then also we look at from a transportation network impact.

So again, you know, um, say if somebody's putting in a new crosswalk, does that mean there needs to be a new curb ramp?

Does that need mean that needs to be a new pedestrian signal?

Um and what does that entail?

Uh so we look at you know the impacts not only from a design level perspective, but then from an operational perspective and from a functionality perspective.

And that's where the uh traffic study comes into place.

Next slide.

So our transportation planning administrative guidelines is basically uh provides got provides technical procedures to analyze and report the effects of new development of transportation network in Alexandria.

So basically it's just a kind of fancy way of saying, you know, you will uh traffic study is required.

These are the guidelines, these are the requirements that go uh that uh tell you how to go about doing a traffic study within the city.

Uh these guidelines provide not only the uh what the anticipated um uh what is involved in the traffic study, but then also uh the process that it takes, um, what we what we would want to see in the traffic study, make sure that it's uh following industry standards, what uh what modeling or what simulation that you're using within the traffic study, what does that look like?

What assumptions are you making within the traffic study?

All that is entailed in the guidelines that that uh that we lay out.

Next slide.

So one of the questions you may have is uh when is the traffic study required?

So uh right now we the first step is to understand what the trip generation is going to be from that development.

Uh we follow uh industry standards, uh the ITE trip generation manual.

ITE is the Institute of Transportation Engineering.

They're uh nationally uh accredited organization that does a whole lot of investigation, a whole lot of analysis, a whole lot of um uh uh research in various things, and one of the various things that they do research on are new newer developments and land use and things of that nature.

So they have a uh a manual that lays out all different types of land uses and also uh the size of these land uses.

And they uh did a you know, survey, they did research, they uh did uh various analysis and they determined what are the the anticipated trip generation from those types of developments.

So we utilize that manual to uh figure out if a traffic study is needed.

Uh the next step is to understand what the trip generation uh would be.

Uh so if the trip generation, if the development creates 50 new trips in either the AM or PM peak hour, uh 50 or more new trips in the AM or PM peak hour, then a study is required.

Next step.

Next slide.

So here's some examples of recent uh developments that you may uh have heard of.

So uh the Duke and Quaker town homes uh that's uh at the Duke and Quaker intersection.

It had about uh 11 town homes with it.

So again, according to the ITE trip generation manual, uh looked at the land use of town town homes and looked at the number of town homes, and it kind of spewed out nine new trips in the peak hour.

Obviously, nine is less than 50, so it did not require a traffic study for that certain development.

We look at another development case, uh the Samuel Madden development, which is over in uh Old Town North, uh over by uh where um uh South Patrick Street and North Henry Street uh converge or diverge.

Um so with that development, there was about 530 apartment units, a small retail, and also 150 student daycare facility.

Uh so again, you know, using the ITE trip generation manual, we projected the trip generation to be about 180 new trips in the peak hour.

So that is very much more than 50 uh 50 trips, so it did require a traffic study.

Just to put it in perspective, uh, you know, over by the Duke and Quaker town homes, the Duke and Quaker intersection uh has about 3600 vehicle trips in the peak hour going through that intersection, and then over by North Patrick Street and the Madison Street intersection, it has about 2,000 vehicle trips in the peak hour.

Next slide.

So what is the process look like?

Uh as you could tell, there's many steps in the process.

So we are uh constantly collaborating and coordinating with the applicant uh of the development to uh not only figure out if the traffic study is needed, but what is uh entailed in the traffic study.

So first we begin with the applicant proposed the development.

Again, we uh determine if the study is required with that development using the ITE trip generation manual.

If the uh if the study is required, then what we go through is uh the applicant proposes a uh study scope.

So what's actually entailed in the intersection uh in the study.

So that means you know how many intersections are being analyzed, uh, what is what roads are being analyzed, uh does it include a parking study?

Does it include um uh pedestrian count, uh bike counts, things of that nature, does uh where are the bus routes uh that that may be impacted, things of that nature.

So that's all within the scoping uh uh study or the scoping discussion with the applicant.

Uh the applicant submits that uh scope uh to the city, the city reviews the scope, and we collaborate on uh with the applicant as to what goes into the study.

After that, then uh there's some back and forth as to you know what needs to go in the study and what needs to be integrated and what the city is looking in uh for and what the applicant's looking for.

But ultimately we uh come to uh a determination and uh the city approves the the scope uh itself.

So after the city approves the scope, then the applicant is free to move forward with the actual study.

Uh after the applicant finishes the study, they uh submit the study to the city.

The city then reviews the study, looking at it from uh if it matches everything that we talked about in the scope, if it's going um in accordance to industry standards that have to do uh traffic analysis, whether the simulation that uh uh is used correctly, and then also we um look at if the um if the results of the study shows uh what we would anticipate or what we know to be the um the operations of the city streets.

Uh so we look at uh various things whenever we're reviewing the study uh or whenever, yeah, whenever we're viewing the study, uh we go back and forth with the applicant uh about what changes need to be made, what adjustments need to be made.

And sometimes it's just uh an amount of of asking questions as to what uh the results mean and the kind of uh going back and forth about that.

And then uh once there the uh changes are being made, and once we give the thumbs up, then we give that approval.

Sometimes within the study, uh there are uh mitigation, the impacts to the transportation network are so um such that it requires mitigation measures, and uh there are mitigation measures that are recommended in the study.

So uh if if both parties are um are in agreement with those recommendations, then uh we would address those recommendations through development conditions.

Uh once those conditions are approved by a planning commission and city council, then uh the applicant delivers the mitigation along with the rest of the uh development um project uh and uh it would be all at the same time as the as the building that comes in.

Next slide.

All right, so what's in a study?

So typically what we do is we analyze the existing conditions.

Uh that could mean what road what roads are are there, how many lanes are in place, what's this are there any sidewalks, are there any bus uh routes, um, are there any bike accommodations, and then also the operations of the uh intersections that are being studied as well.

Um we kind of use the existing conditions as a baseline so that we could project what the future conditions would be.

Uh the future conditions are based upon again the the existing conditions and then uh an assumption made as to how much the traffic will grow or how much the population would grow uh whenever the development is being uh is fully built out.

So uh we look at future conditions without the development and we look at future conditions with the development so that we could kind of compare apples to apples um uh at the at the future condition.

Um and again, uh if the if the impacts to the network seem to be that uh there needs to be mitigation, then the mitigations are analyzed as well.

Uh so we look at the future conditions with the mitigation and with the development at the same time.

Next slide.

So what are we thinking the mitigation would be?

Um so we are a very urban area and very dense area.

So uh the mitigations most likely would not lead to uh uh widened uh roadways or or added lanes.

So we try to be creative at as much as creative as possible to uh figure out what mitigations uh to uh some of these uh impacts would be.

So uh we do have a transportation management program uh which uh encourages other modes of transportation.

So we have funds that uh that the applicant could uh contribute to, uh, contribute to the uh TMP funds, and that would uh lead into either programs that would encourage other modes of transportation or projects that would uh provide um uh better facilities for other modes of transportation.

We would also ask the applicant to improve the infrastructure uh to improve safety.

So whether that means uh wider sidewalks, uh, whether that means uh better lighting, whether that means better crossing for pedestrians, uh, or just um simply just uh providing a safe uh um infrastructure uh within the development, uh we would ask them to provide that as well.

Um and to uh reduce congestion, we focus on using uh technology to do that.

We focus on smart infrastructure.

So uh right now the uh city is going through a smart signal uh project, and um we would ask the applicant or the developer to contribute to that those uh projects, uh contribute to real-time data being used, so uh putting out uh devices or putting out equipment that uh provides real-time data collection so that we uh so that it would better inform the way that we make our decisions.

Um, and then also we would uh incorporate uh what we call transit signal priority.

So giving uh buses priority at signals, uh, and then also um emergency vehicle uh priority signals as well.

Uh so those are a few of the mitigation uh um uh options that we have uh along with many other options that we uh have as well.

Next slide.

So that concludes uh my um my presentation.

Uh thank you, and I'm sure we'll have uh questions at the very end.

Cool.

All right, thank you, Ryan.

And I'll let Rob uh move into our next segment.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Rob Kern, and I'm the development planning division chief and planning and zoning.

Yeah, I'm gonna be going through the uh our current uh development cases uh in the coming months.

So uh here are here is our uh finalized September docket.

Uh we're off in in August, but so this is the September uh docket has been finalized.

And you can see we have two uh townhome cases um uh in September for development cases.

Well, I'm not gonna go through the entire list because we're gonna go through each one in detail in the coming slides.

Uh, and then I'm also gonna uh touch on uh possible uh some additional projects coming later this fall.

Next slide.

So here you can see on the map where the the applications are falling uh this time.

Uh we have two uh in the east end uh in the old town, uh greater old town area uh of Alexandria, and then we have a school improvement uh project at St.

Stephen's St.

Agnes in the in the center of the uh city.

And on the right hand side here, uh you can we show sort of the rigorous review standards that uh these projects go through as they as they go through our our rubric, our review process.

I think Paul touched on most of these, but looking at everything from height to setbacks to density, stormwater, and all the environmental uh elements of of sites and projects, transportation planning as Ryan uh explained uh in detail, affordable housing, architecture, and the list.

There's there's quite a list of various topics and things that we reviewed.

But the the bottom line is we review all these things for safety and for um compliance with our our laws and regulations, but also to implement the small area plans and the visions of those small area plans.

Next slide.

So the two townhouse cases in September that will be before the planning commission and council are the first one is 415 North Alfred Street.

Here we have five fee simple townhouses.

They'll have backyards.

Each townhouse also has an accessory dwelling unit above their rear, uh their rear garage uh coming off of the alley in the behind.

Uh they're located in the Parker Gray Historic District, so review will occur there in terms of historic resources and context.

Uh and this project will only require going to planning commission because it is a development site plan.

There are no special use permits required with this project.

Next slide.

The other townhouse project is at the corner of North Patrick and Madison Streets.

Again, it's the construction of five townhouses on that prominent corner.

It is also located in the Parker Gray district, so review occurs um for it's just hits historic context.

And there are uh private open space areas in the rear of the townhomes.

You can see the picture uh uh on the bottom right where the townhomes are have access from the rear into their into their garages, but there's also uh a green space in the rear for the the residents to utilize.

And then they're also included in this proposal are significant upgrades to the streetscape on this corner.

You know, there'll be street trees, widened sidewalks, a new bus platform, and ADA compliant uh curb ramps uh on the corner as well.

And this will match with uh with the Samuel Baden project, which is happening just on the other uh side of the street currently.

Next slide.

Okay, uh in October, we're anticipating the St.

Stephen St.

Agnes uh Upper School Game Day Plaza project coming in.

And what's occurring uh there is uh they are adding, they're basically upgrading their current facilities.

Uh so they're adding new athletic field lighting.

That's that's the proposal on their football and soccer fields.

Uh, there'll be small but new buildings for concessions and a pavilion uh to provide additional uh utility spaces as well as um amenity spaces.

Uh and then they're going to be uh replacing the bleachers uh and the shed uh with this overall improvement.

So those are the cases for the coming September uh and October.

Thank you very much.

Uh thank you very much, Rob.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Tony Lakola, division chief for land use and preservation.

Uh we have a number of special use permits, a vacation of right-of-way, as well as several text amendments coming up in the fall.

Um, if you could go to the next slide, please.

The first special use permit is for redevelopment of a lot without frontage at 911 CND Pendleton Street.

Um the intent here is to convert a commercial storage unit in an alleyway to a single unit dwelling with a second story addition.

Um, I believe this will be the first of several conversions of this small strip uh in the future.

Um, next slide, please.

We have special use permit uh at 1913 Mount Vernon Avenue.

This is the Delray Farmhouse Market and Garden.

They have an outdoor performance space uh which can accommodate about two performers at a time, and they intend to do uh live entertainment on weekends uh during some of their um uh outdoor market event events, um, as well as uh requesting a modification to the vision clearance triangle.

Um, the vision clearance triangle is to safeguard um vision for uh motorists as they uh make turns.

Um it's a minimal impact, at least the stages um staff is still evaluating the impact on motorists, and we'll make a recommendation to the planning commission city council in September.

Next slide.

We have a special use permit at one East Custis.

This is for redevelopment of a substandard lot.

Uh substandard lots are those lots which are deficient or um they lack the proper size for the zone.

Um, it could be a smaller frontage or a reduced uh lot width.

Um this particular lot uh lacks uh lot size.

The proposed home is 1,996 square feet, measures about 26.8 feet in height, um, not out of character with surrounding homes.

Um, planning commission, city council will review this in September.

Next slide.

Uh there's also a vacation of public right-of-way on the docket for September at 218 East Alexandria Avenue and 300 East Alexandria Avenue.

This is uh what we would consider a partial vacation.

Uh the applicants are proposing to maintain the current alley use, which is currently 50 feet wide, uh, and reduce that to a usable 20 feet, um, as well as uh repave the current uh alley to the city standard.

Um each applicant would receive about the same amount of space, um, which would be uh combined with their current lots.

Next slide, please.

We have a series of zoning text amendments.

Some of these are brought about by mandated state legislation.

Um the first one is a zoning text amendment, uh, which is being uh termed Yes and God's Backyard.

That was the name of the legislation that was passed and signed by the governor.

Uh the purpose is to adopt state mandated development review requirements for Yig B affordable housing developments and affordable housing developments in terms of this legislation uh requires at least 60% of the uh dwelling units to be considered affordable.

Um it allows religious or other nonprofit groups to develop property um with only an administrative review process.

Uh no discretionary review is uh allowed.

Uh essentially, this permits buy right development uh for building densities, heights, and setbacks based on existing zoning in the district, or uh nearby existing development within 500 feet.

Um in essence, a nonprofit or religious group uh could build to what the uh zone allows, or look at nearby existing development and develop to whatever those standards are uh that were originally approved.

We expect to begin some public outreach in September with public hearings in November.

Next.

Next is a zoning text amendment related to parking regulations.

Again, this is another state mandated requirement related to residential development.

The state has set a maximum of one space per single unit, two unit or townhouse dwelling unit within a thousand feet of a transit facility, or and a maximum of 0.5 spaces per multifamily dwelling unit within a thousand feet of a transit facility.

And a transit facility is anything from a bus shelter to a rail station.

So there are plenty of areas in Alexandria where this can be implemented.

What staff is proposing is that we incorporate the state requirements throughout the entire enhanced transit area rather than just the 1,000 feet of a transit facility.

This would replace the current metro and bus shelter walking, walkshed parking calculations.

These are quite complicated, cumbersome for developers and staff to work through.

This text amendment would streamline those calculations and the approval process.

We expect this to go to hearing in November.

Next.

We have a zoning text amendment related to substandard lots.

We've come to the to you several times to talk about this particular text amendment.

There have been outreach opportunities in the past related to this text amendment as well.

This will implement the city council work plan to revise substandard lot regulations and to streamline review.

What staff is proposing is to allow most substandard lots to be developed by right, provided the size frontage and width meet certain standards or certain thresholds.

So if they're if the lots are in character with essentially the neighborhood or neighboring lots, they would be allowed to move through the development process by right rather than having to go to city council for approval.

We do intend to keep SUP review for lots without frontage as something that would go to city council.

For more information, we'll have another public outreach event.

I think this will be the third one in mid-August, and public hearings will be in October.

If you would like more information on this particular text amendment, go to the website you see on the screen, Alexandria.gov slash zoning slash zoning amendments for more information.

We'll have the concepts on there, schedule and everything else very shortly.

Next slide.

With this text amendment, we intend to update some outdated language, ensure consistency between the historic districts, and formalize some existing processes.

What's being proposed is one modernize the zoning ordinance language.

What we have found is like there are small differences that can make a big difference.

We want to make sure that you know there's a consistent review, consistent appeal process between each of the districts.

We also intend to formalize the DSUP concept review process.

Right now, that's very that's informal.

Developers are suggested to go through the concept review process.

It's not required.

This text amendment would make that required.

It will also streamline the DSUP certificate of appropriateness appeal process so that if there is an appeal, it can go through a hearing much faster.

Currently, for OHAD review of curb cuts is uh on the books by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

The courts have said that that's not an appropriate uh board to review curb cuts.

Um curb cuts in Parker Gray and 100-year-old buildings, still takes place by the BAR.

Um, we are going to move everything to traffic and parking board uh for consistency and to put it into a board that it makes sense uh to do those reviews.

BAR will still review uh materials that are used for paving, any type of gating or fencing that's put up, that still would be reviewed uh by BAR.

Uh we intend to do some public outreach in September, early September with public hearings in November.

Again, more information is at alexandria.gov slash zoning, slash zoning dash amendments.

And that will do it for land use and preservation.

All right.

Well, thank you, Rob, and thank you, Tony.

Um, and so I'm gonna bring us back actually to where we started.

Uh as you remember, we we uh we had this agenda up in the beginning.

And so we certainly covered a lot of ground.

Uh and hopefully you all are keeping in mind that graphic that shows how all these different topics are connected, right?

Beginning with community visioning, uh visioning as we go through long-range planning and the small area planning process, uh, how we turn those into development regulations and rules uh uh with our zoning ordinance, uh, and then how we put those rules into practice with the rigorous reviews.

Ryan had an example of that uh for us with with uh transportation engineering, and then the actual development applications that are coming forward uh in the next couple months of uh hearings or I should say next couple months after we get out of the summer resets.

Uh and so as I said, we're gonna uh we wanted to hold all the questions to the end to make sure we could we could keep uh we could get the content out to everybody.

And so now we're gonna switch gears and talk QA.

Um again, the QA box, you may have to hover your mouse over the lower center of the screen.

Uh, but I'll go ahead and read out the questions as typed in.

Uh and if I need some help in answering them, I'll I'll look to the rest of the staff team.

But here we go.

Uh oh, uh before I jump to the questions, just a reminder for folks who may have signed on late.

If you go to Alexandria BA.gov slash planning, the web address is there on the lower right side of the screen.

You can get uh the full slide deck from time as well as the recorded presentation, uh, as well as the QA once we get it posted.

Uh but with that on the questions.

So first one uh reads buy monthly is not frequent enough for updates in this pro development city.

Paul, please reinstitute monthly updates.

Otherwise, the community is not informed of projects and time for substantive feedback.

Uh it's a good question.

Uh that's something that we've been looking at is what is the cadence of these things.

And we'll take another look at it based on that comment.

Uh, what we have been striving to do is make sure that we are holding these, uh, that as we hold these uh to try and deliver on the intent of the question, right?

We've always been holding these regularly enough that we're always looking either two or three dockets ahead.

Uh so for tonight we were obviously reporting on what's going to happen in September, but also what we uh what we project is is going to happen in October as well.

Uh, but it's a quick comment, and we'll take it back and look at the the cadence of the meeting today.

Next one is what are fees collected by residents of developments used for?

Uh and I so I think this question is asking when people pay uh application fees for different kinds of applications, right?

If you go in for a building permit for a deck, you pay a fee.

If you um uh go in and you pay uh develop an application fee for a site plan, uh you pay a fee.

Uh that all of those fees are intended to be what's called fee for service.

So when the it's putting the cost of the review on the person applying.

So uh the developer, the applicant, they come in, they want a specific approval.

Uh oh, ah, uh so I'll answer this question, and then I'll ask and then I'll answer the correction.

Um, and I might need Ryan's help for that one.

But um, when people come in and they ask for uh project reviews, uh that of course incurs staff time, and that gets translated to a cost when it comes around the budgeting.

And so the intent is that those application fees help uh uh offset or cover uh the staff costs associated with with review.

Uh the corrected, the the additional information in the question asked, uh sorry.

Uh question was about TMP, transportation management um uh fees.

And Ryan, do you want to step in and answer that one?

Sure.

So the TMP uh covers a lot of different things.

So it could be uh reserved funding for uh projects that uh we currently have within uh the city's uh work plan.

Uh again, majority of the projects that would be utilizing TMP TMP funds would be encouraging other modes of transportation.

So complete streets projects, uh transit projects, um safety bicycle safety projects, things of that nature.

And also the TMP fund is also used to encourage business owners and businesses and residential uh management to um encourage their uh their community to utilize uh other modes of transportation, whether that means uh having um a program in which they uh give um a certain subsidy to use the metro or use uh uh transit or or bike share or or things of that nature.

So there's it's utilizing uh that as well.

So it goes into a number of things, but typically is either either projects or either um or goal's uh fund, which is encouraging other modes of transportation by encouraging business owners and residential units to give subsidies to uh residents um or subsidies to their um their patrons uh to use other modes of transportation.

Thank you, Brian.

Uh next question reads uh will Alexandria include all affordable housing in its expedited processes for Yigby taking advantage of the state's new discretionary authority to have expedited processes for all affordable housing.

Um and I'll speak to this one a little bit.

Uh so there were a number of measures that went uh were considered and and uh several of them made it through at the state level this year around how to um make it easier to deliver uh on on housing uh development uh uh sort of statewide.

Uh and this is actually a trend that's playing out across the country that a lot of different states are looking at um uh looking at housing shortages um uh across the board, cities across the country, uh, and states are stepping in to say, wait a second, there have to be some guardrails uh on local review and local control uh because collectively uh folks uh aren't able to build enough housing to keep up with rising demand.

Uh and so uh the question here, uh so obviously we're gonna meet the requirements of what's in the Yigby legislation for uh reviewing those applications administratively.

Uh as part of that, we're also going to be looking at uh are there other kinds of applications we can review in that administrative vein as well.

Uh and then there was another um line of legislation around uh sort of allowing um staff level rezonings of applications associated with development of uh affordable housing development applications.

Uh we're gonna keep looking at that one uh to try to understand um exactly what that would mean and how that would play out.

Um it's a little unclear what some of the language means.

Uh and so we're gonna uh continue to review that and see what options are.

Uh next one reads uh if some of our, and Tony, I think this is going to be for you.

Uh if some of our historic preservation regulations contain language that we would now consider offensive, given the history of many of our zoning and land use regulations and balancing, could there be instances where the regulation itself is the problem?

So staff went you know line by line through each of the regulations.

Um what we're trying to do is in instances, for instance, a good example is the the zoning ordinance says the chairman shall or he shall, like we're trying to make a lot of what's in there, you know, neutral and in its its tone.

Um we went line by line to ensure that what's in the current zoning ordinance isn't you know the problem.

Um what we're talking about with making you know making changes to language is kind of making things more neutral and in its tone.

So hopefully that answers the question.

All right.

And then Tony, this one's going to be for you as well.

Uh, will the change to the SVP rules for substandard lots happen in October, or is that just a public meeting?

Tonight's call is only the second meeting on this topic, and there likely are residents who don't want the city to terminate the SAP process for substandard lots.

Uh, by the way, at the first meeting, we were given no reason for this SNAP recommendation.

We have some process allows the public not only to be informed, but to provide feedback.

So the October date will be the public hearings um at Planning Commission and City Council for the text amendment related to substandard lots.

Um we did have a uh public meeting uh back when we were proposing uh changes to substandard lots, commercial zoning regulations and historic preservation.

I want to say that was um late 2024.

So we heard some ideas from residents back then, and then we had another meeting a couple of months ago.

So when I say it's the third, you know, technically from a staff perspective, it would be the third uh public meeting for residents to provide input.

Um during the last meeting, um, what we were trying to do is just gather information, ideas from residents.

We didn't have a recommendation at that point.

Now that we have received um comments and feedback, uh staff is refining a recommendation, which we will uh provide to the public at the next public meeting, and then from there gather more information feedback and refine um the SEP uh process for setup standard lots a little bit more before it goes to hearing.

All right, we have no unanswered questions in the chat box.

We've got a few minutes left.

A couple last questions.

But with that, I'll say thank you again to everyone who committed some time on a Tuesday night to learn what was going on or what's coming up with public hearing cases, what's going on in terms of small area plannings and the text amendments.

And hopefully we'll all continue to stay informed and aware.

And there we go, my spelling worked.

I pulled up one more question.

Here we go.

All right, uh Kiri, I think this might be a new question.

For impact related to Few Street redevelopment and rezoning plans, if businesses are leasing commercial profits, would the city reach out to them directly, or it's contacting the owners of the properties.

When would businesses be contact?

And here I'm just trying to uh process that question.

Let's see.

So for the purposes of the planning process, we have been doing two things.

We've been reaching out to property owners to let them know that this planning process is occurring and get their input on well, hear from them about whether or not they have ideas for future redevelopment if that's in their kind of uh short or long-term horizon.

Um, and if so, you know, what their thoughts about are about what they might do, what they'd like to see in the corridor.

Um separately uh as part of the planning process, we are reaching out to uh businesses in the um plan area, and we've done a lot of um door-to-door, excuse me, door-to-door outreach.

We have um used uh the West End Business Association.

We've um gone through AEDP's contacts with small businesses, basically trying to do everything we can to contact business owners to both let them know that the process is occurring and get their feedback on issues or opportunities they see with the plan.

Um so I think this question is related to if redevelopment were to occur in the future, would the city reach out to the businesses?

And I I think the answer is no, that would be the property owner who holds the lease to the um with the businesses, they would be notifying um those businesses of of their plans.

Um, you know, in accordance with their lease terms.

I hope that answers the question.

I want to make sure it was clear.

And Carrie, do you want to speak?

Because I know uh you mentioned it already in the slides that uh one of the things we heard in talking to the community was the importance of the small businesses.

They they add a lot of that identity to the corridor.

And I think the plan speaks to uh how do we continue to support small businesses.

Absolutely.

Um, one of the recommendations or kind of a subset of the recommendations is related to some strategies for how we can support retaining small businesses in the corridor.

And um, one of the biggest challenges or two things.

Uh we see that a lot of the um, or there are certain areas of the Duke Street corridor that have um more affordable rents relative to the rest of the city.

And so um uh a lot of small and independent businesses locate there because it is affordable.

It's a place where they can start up a business or you know, go from being a food truck to a bricks and mortar kind of business.

Um a lot of those spaces are also very flexible in terms of what um can go in the space.

So they're kind of light, extra light industrial.

Um, and so one of the recommendations, draft recommendations we have so far is related to how we can um uh preserve the affordability of that's of that space to the degree that a plan is able to help with that.

Um, and so we're looking at not adding additional density and height to certain um uh sort of small business focused areas.

And that's one of the strategies we're we're implementing so far.

Whoa.

Oh, my lights turned off.

I haven't moved uh from my chair, apparently.

Uh let's see, another question comes in and it reads uh Tony.

Uh whoops, I just lost the uh question.

Um I'm sorry, Paul.

I typed a response, but I can go ahead.

Uh you know, it just was uh stating concern about the um zoning text amendment related to development review, eroding um the BAR's um I guess control or review of uh developments in the district.

And I just essentially said that I would disagree because what the zoning text amendment does is make the concept review process required.

Uh right now it's uh an optional process uh that developers can go through if they would like to.

Um, but formalizing the concept review process will actually uh make the regulation stronger, in my opinion.

Yeah, I think, and we'll probably get into this more.

I know we've got a um a public meeting that we want to run so that we can talk about that in more detail.

Um, and so that might be another good venue to hash this out.

But I think um so the specific wording on the question was um uh there is great concern in the community that the zoning text amendment for review of development in historic districts with consuming the relaxed the OAT or the historic district standards, uh further eroding our historic fabric.

So the the zoning text amendment as staff was approaching it, maintains all the existing standards.

Uh so not only the architectural fabric and building, but the height scale and mass.

Uh it just clarifies when in the process those elements get reviewed uh so that there isn't uh sort of confusion uh about when that is supposed to occur.

So it is trying to formalize uh sort of maintain the required reviews and then formalize when in the process and sequence they're supposed to occur.

Uh but again, it's it's a good question to raise.

It's something staff's been thinking about and uh when we run the um uh public meeting specifically for those types of amendments, that might be a good thing for us to help clarify and talk through.

And Paul, if I could address the last question here.

Uh yes, the text amendments are essentially the same as they were uh last fall.

Uh, what was supposed to go to a public hearing in December 2025.

Uh, not much has changed.

What we have done is add the curb cut text amendment to the package of uh historic preservation text amendments.

But what you'll see is essentially the same as what was proposed in December 2025.

Right.

Uh we've gotten back to no open questions and we're past time.

Uh as I said, uh uh go to Alexander VA.gov slash planning.

Uh look for an image that looks a lot like the one on the right, and you'll be able to find uh slides from tonight, the recording from tonight, as well as the QA from tonight, and of course, uh past meetings as well.

Uh, but thank you again, everyone, for committing your Tuesday uh to be in with us.

Uh, and uh looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Thanks all.

Bye.